Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Parts of Yushchenko's speech at Maidan tonight (most of the text is paraphrased to some extent, not quoted directly):

- In the past 17 days, a new nation has been born, a truly European nation, all thanks to you, the people, who protested the falsifications in a peaceful and civilized way - not a single drop of blood has been shed

- Thank you to the army and the police; thank you to the mayor of Kyiv, Oleksandr Omelchenko

- The conditions that we put forward, our demands that have been satisfied:

The Supreme Court has cancelled the election results

The Central Election Commission, some of whose members betrayed tens of millions of people, has been disbanded

Election laws have been changed in order to avoid falsifications during the re-vote

The government that inspired falsifications has resigned

Prosecutor-general, Vasilyev, has resigned: he's paid a price for putting more value into phone conversations with Medvedchuk, Kuchma's administration chief, than the Ukrainian laws (Bilokon, minister of internal affairs, and others are to follow Vasilyev)

- A special thanks to the young people, the students - they initiated the most important events at Maidan. All of us here were students once - but what these young Ukrainian citizens have done is an incredible, exemplary deed

- Separatism, a nonsensical idea of autonomization - I'm addressing people of Luhansk, Donetsk and Kharkiv regions: do not trust those of your local leaders who were lying to you; there is nothing to divide us as a people. The spirit of unity has been ruling Maidan for 17 days already - and we have to take this spirit and carry it over to every corner of this country

- No one's rights are going to be violated - no matter who you voted for, or what temple you go to to pray to God

- One step remains to victory - we all have to be well-organized and well-prepared on Dec. 26; the headquarters are now working on a specific plan; the tent city will not be disbanded but re-organized because everyone has to go to their regions and work hard for victory; the campaign headquarters and the rescue committee will still be making announcements from the stage at Maidan